April 18, 2009

Stroger scandals are taking a toll as campaign season looms

His political career already rocked by an unpopular sales-tax increase, Cook County Board President Todd Stroger provided more self-inflicted damage as a saga plays out over his hiring and firing of a patronage worker with a sordid criminal history.

Stroger tried to get in front of the fallout for employing busboy-turned-basketball-chum Tony Cole by dumping his own cousin from a top county post Friday. But the latest scandal could become a major problem ahead of next year's election, because it fits into the narrative that a sizable stable of critics like to tell the public: Stroger is an inept heir of a wasteful county government overloaded with lazy political hacks.

The embattled politician said he was making a pre-emptive move by pushing his cousin, Donna Dunnings, the county's chief financial officer, out the door in advance of unspecified allegations he said Cole planned to make about her. Fighting those allegations would prevent Dunnings from carrying out the important county job he appointed her to, Stroger said.

"Even though I believe she has done nothing wrong, the county still has to run and it will be difficult for a while going through some kind of media circus," Stroger told WGN-AM 720.

In tossing Dunnings from her $175,702-a-year executive position, Stroger appeared to be trying to help his re-election campaign by eliminating sources of intense controversy. For critics, Dunnings was emblematic of a bloated county payroll filled with Stroger's relatives and friends---a holdover from the days when his late father, John Stroger, ran the show and first promoted Dunnings to a top county finance post.

Only days earlier, Stroger had announced plans to roll back a portion of the controversial 1 percentage-point county sales-tax hike he pushed through last year. Though Stroger said he had "no hard numbers," he contended unspecified federal stimulus dollars would allow him to cut an overall sales-tax rate vilified as the highest among major U.S. cities.

But the decision to dump Dunnings also obfuscated Stroger's role in personally plucking Cole last fall from his job as a steakhouse busboy and putting him on the county payroll. Stroger said he fired Cole, 29, a former college basketball player, last week after learning about Cole's criminal background. The allegations include arrests for sexual assault and domestic violence and convictions for writing a bad check and violating an order of protection, published reports showed.

"I thought [Cole] could do well if given the opportunity," Stroger said. "It became apparent he was not able to work with people."

Stroger told the Tribune he and Dunnings tried to mentor Cole. But Dunnings also twice used her personal credit card to bail Cole out of jail after arrests resulting from alleged threats against an ex-girlfriend, court records show.

A source familiar with Cole's work at the county---where he quickly ascended from administrative assistant to a human resources job at the highway department---said Cole bragged about his "direct access to Donna and the president---he was over there all the time" and talked about playing basketball with Stroger.

Cole's hiring and firing was reminiscent of an incident a year ago, when Stroger gave a $99,000-a-year patronage job to a man who once worked at the East Bank Club, where Stroger plays basketball. After the Tribune raised questions about his qualifications, the man was demoted and his salary cut.

Long before his dealings with Cole, Stroger's political future was an open question. This month, voters expressed their displeasure over his tax hike in symbolic referendums. Coupled with a stream of nepotism complaints since his 2006 election, Stroger is viewed privately by some leading Democrats as a liability on next year's ticket. Party bosses' fears are exacerbated by the possibility ex-Chicago Public Schools</runtime:topic> CEO Paul Vallas will run for County Board president as a Republican.

County Commissioner Larry Suffredin called the latest revelations "absurd" and said his fellow Democrat Stroger should resign.

"Ms. Dunnings has been the de facto president of the County Board, telling her cousin when to talk and what to do," Suffredin said in a statement. "She has developed and put in place hiring processes that benefited President Stroger's friends and family and is the architect of the latest plan to borrow more money than the county needs. If she has to resign, then the person who gave her all this power should follow her lead."

Yet Stroger still stands a fighting chance in February's Democratic primary, depending on how many and what kind of candidates run in a city where racial politics is ever present. Stroger could appeal to his base of African-American voters, who know him better than the other potential black candidate, Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th). John Stroger won the 2006 primary against Commissioner Forrest Claypool, who may run again next year, by capturing an overwhelming black city vote to counter Claypool's support among whites in the suburbs and along the lakefront.

"The county has become a bit of a media circus and political circus and anything that happens will---for reasons that are just about who is in the office---they become bigger than sometimes they should," Stroger said.

Comments

I don't think the sentence "Stroger could appeal to his base of African-American voters, who know him better than the other potential black candidate, Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th)." is fair. I think that black voters, who may have once supported Stroger, no longer do. We capable of researching candidates and making educated decisions. Also, most of the people that expressed dismay at having voted for him in the first place are happily rubbing their hands together to vote him OUT! We know stupid when we see it!

All 50 aldermen on the Chicago City Council had to file paperwork earlier this year detailing their outside income and gifts. The Tribune took that ethics paperwork and posted the information here for you to see. You can search by ward number or alderman's last name.

The Cook County Assessor's office has put together lists of projected median property tax bills for all suburban towns and city neighborhoods. We've posted them for you to get a look at who's paying more and who's paying less.

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